Editing The Difference Engine (section)

{{short description|1990 alternative history novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling}}
{{about|the novel|the machine designed by Charles Babbage|Difference engine|the album by Beaver|The Difference Engine (album)}}
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{{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name = The Difference Engine
| image = TheDifferenceEngine(1stEd).jpg
| image_size = 240px
| caption = Cover of first edition (hardcover)
| author = [[William Gibson]] and [[Bruce Sterling]]
| cover_artist =
| country = United States
| language = English
| genre = [[Alternate history]], [[steampunk]]
| publisher = [[Victor Gollancz Ltd]]
| release_date = September 1990
| media_type = Print (hardback and paperback)
| pages = 383 pp (Paperback – 429 pages)
| isbn = 0-575-04762-3
| oclc= 21299781
}}

'''''The Difference Engine''''' (1990) is an [[alternative history]] novel by [[William Gibson]] and [[Bruce Sterling]].<ref name=WWEnd/>{{better source|date=May 2025}}<!--See note regarding this source in the main body.--> It has been described as an early work of the [[steampunk]] genre,<ref name=MitrovichAmazStor_2013/><ref name=WWEnd/>{{better source|date=May 2025}} and is regarded as having helped to establish that genre's conventions.{{not verified in body|date=May 2025}}

It posits a [[Victorian era|Victorian-era]] [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] in which great technological and social change has occurred after the mechanical [[computers]] of [[Charles Babbage]] make widespread impact, there and globally, resulting in [[history|historical]] individuals taking on markedly different roles ([[Lord Byron]] instead surviving the [[Greek War of Independence]] to lead Britain, the late [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Benjamin Disraeli]] instead becoming a tabloid writer, etc.), and European and American continents of markedly different political dispositions (e.g., the [[United States]] being, rather, several competing nations). Behind the manifest progress, ''Kirkus'' writes, "20th-century crises brew", providing context for a "cops-and-robbers plot".<ref name=KirkusDiffEng/>

The novel received nominations for several major science fiction awards in the years following its publication,<ref name=WWEnd/> and has been the subject of continuing scholarly interest for its approach to history and particular historical characters, and for its relationship to the [[Benjamin Disraeli|Disraeli]] novel, [[Sybil (novel)|''Sybil'']].